VOLCHOK Heroes: Bharatadanu

Our new hero – Bharata Danu, a graphic designer and illustrator from Indonesia but we would better call him a multimedia artist who works in a wide range of fields and directions. In his graphics he combines filigree style of engraving with raw aesthetics of punk, occult symbolism and geometry. He also runs his own clothing brand and plays music in two experimental punk bands. In a small interview Bharata talked about his background, favorite sides of the creative process, working with musicians and his own music projects, and he also shared a lot of sources of inspiration.

I was born and grew up in a city called Palembang on the island of Sumatra, and after finishing high school I moved to the city of Bandung, to study graphic design. Here I started my career and here I live now. Palembang and Bandung are the cities in Indonesia, Southeast Asia.

I work as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer for more than 9 years now, that's what I do for living. I have been interested and enjoyed drawing since I was a kid. My parents are biology teachers and chemistry lecturers so they often brought me picture books and encyclopedias about life in the dinosaur times, the ancient Romans, the Anasazi, the Aztecs, the Incas, etc. I also used to watch such channels as National Geographic and History Channel on cable TV, they featured many programs about ancient tribes and prehistoric paintings on cave walls. That's how I started to like painting, drawing and art in general.

I was very inspired by illustration of the Prehistory era, Middle Ages, Dark Ages, Renaissance. Also during my first year of being graphic design and art student I started to explore European art movements of the beginning of the XX century: Bauhaus architecture, Mondrian, Dadaism, Expressionism, Jugendstil, Constructivism, etc.

I like abstractions, occult symbolism and things that are very difficult for many people to understand. That's because I want people who see my work to be able to fantasize wildly about what I make according to their minds.

Elements of naive graphics in my work originate from my youth, when I began to spend a lot of time in the punk-rock and experimental music scene (in fact, as it is now).

At that time I learned how to be myself doing things independently. I met many people who have the same interests as me and we started doing things together, without looking at any hierarchy or differences - gender, class, religious, racial or national ones.

So in my work there are also echoes of the punk subculture, its various styles and elements which I like to explore. I like black and white palette, spontaneous art compositions, raw textures which still look aesthetically pleasing – like on the covers of such bands as Rudimentary Peni, Crass, Antisect, G.I.S.M.. These bands became the gateway for me to explore art at a higher level, such as fashion and graphic design. I discovered many artists who adapted the punk aesthetics in their work: Gee Vaucher, Vivienne Westwood, Jun Takahashi, Nick Blinko, Wolfgang Weingart and others.

It takes practice and sensitivity to mix and match different styles. It's a matter of composition and technique. I studied different styles and tried to use them in different media like music or merch. So now it comes naturally.

Someone would say that my works are gloomy, can I call myself gloomy? Haha. May be yes, may be no. Although in fact I am a cheerful person who is easy to get along with, a little grumpy, but easy to forgive.

Every day I work as a full-time illustrator. I also go to the office where I work as an art director of my brand Lacreme that I have developed since the end of 2019 with my good friend Adit Undead. I also focus on musical projects – electronic Asylum Uniform and punk band named Dystopian Dog. Asylum Uniform's music is a mixture of post-punk and techno. Besides punk and metal, I also like electronic music and this is my first serious music project. We formed this band with two of my friends in early 2019, released our first EP last year and are currently working on ten new songs for our first album. I want to keep exploring various musical directions that I like and combine them with punk elements, because these are my roots.

My favorite in creating art is that I have a medium to express anger, anxiety, or whatever is in my brain. I express my emotions through art, having the same approach to both sound and visual things. Thus, I create an archive and memorize the process of life in which I am at the moment or which I have been through.

I work a lot with musicians because that's my passion. Since I was a kid I dreamed of becoming someone who creates great creative works. I only do what I believe in, what I love with all my soul and I do it consistently.

My achievement is that my parents and folks can be proud of what I do. Another one is the ability to interact and collaborate with many people from different parts of the world with the work I create. Also I am content with the fact that in my work I can express myself and this self-expression can meet a response from other people, they can appreciate and like what I do.

Favourite artists: Nick Blinko, Jun Takahashi, Mark McCoy.

Favorite music projects: DAF (Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft), Swans, Mike Patton (Fantomas, Mr Bungle, Peeping Tom and others).